The Japanese tsunami of 2011 provided an opportunity for an innovation experiment. Could we deliver something that felt like real time feedback and what impact would it have on donors?

We worked with disaster mapping charity MapAction to experiment with low cost film-making to involve givers as events unfolded in the biggest news story of the year.

They launched an appeal to fund the small team they were sending out to Japan on the same day they left. Here it is:

The video was widely shared and their fundraising target was met within 5 days. Interestingly donations almost completely stopped after 7 days.

They gave their first feedback to givers within days:

They delivered a final video feedback 3 weeks later:

Donors to the MapAction project were the most satisfied of any SeeTheDifference project.

The speed of feedback astonished and delighted many donors. They had given in many cases as a response to the news they had seen and ended up feeling they had made a personal difference and it had been money well spent.

Speed matters to givers.

By contrast feedback to other givers about other projects, delivered to givers 6-12 months after donations were made was often much less impactful.

Two striking findings stood out; over 50% of feedback alerts went unread, so many givers didn’t see the fruit of their generosity (thanks to changes of email address, spam filters or disinterest).

Secondly when we surveyed people, many had simply forgotten they had given – and whilst pleased to hear back, the passage of time meant their emotional engagement was low.